1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital camera, a cradle and a camera system, and in particular, to the digital camera, the cradle and the camera system suitable for two-way communication with an external apparatus such as a personal computer for performing two-way communication.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the conventional method of inputting an image captured by a digital camera to a personal computer, the digital camera is connected to the personal computer with a communication cable to have two-way communication performed between them via the cable so that the image is captured into the personal computer.
An AC adapter plug is inserted in a DC power input terminal (DC input terminal) of the digital camera so that the camera is driven when the camera power supply is on and a battery in the camera is charged when the camera power supply is off by the power inputted from the DC input terminal.
However, there is a problem that it is troublesome to connect the digital camera to the personal computer with the communication cable each time the image is captured from the digital camera into the personal computer. If the battery of the digital camera is consumed during the communication between the camera and the personal computer and the communication becomes impossible, a failure such as an imperfect image remaining in the personal computer or destruction of data occurs. Moreover, in the case of charging the battery in the digital camera, the AC adapter plug must be inserted in the DC input terminal of the camera, while such charging work is apt to be forgotten so that there are cases where the camera cannot be used when necessary since the battery is not charged.
Even in the case where the communication cable is connected to the digital camera, it is started as an ordinary camera if it is turned on when the power of the personal computer is off or the communication cable is off the personal computer. To be more specific, a lens cover opens and a taking lens is let out to be on standby for image-capturing in the case where a camera operation mode is an image-capturing mode, and reproduction of an image recorded on a memory card is started in the case of a reproduction mode. Thus, there are the cases where it performs a camera operation different from what a user intended, leading to a possibility of causing a wrong operation or a misunderstanding.